Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for free
Your guide to what the 2024 US elections mean for Washington and the world
U.S. diplomats have requested urgent relief for Ukraine-related programs from a 90-day foreign aid freeze and “shut down work” orders issued by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, according to documents observed by the Financial Times and people familiar with the matter.
Citing national security concerns, senior diplomats at the State Department’s Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs asked Rubio to grant a full waiver to exclude the work of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in Ukraine’s sweeping directive which came into force immediately after being published on Friday.
“We do not know at this time whether this request will be approved – in whole or in part – but there are positive signals as far as Washington,” said an email to USAID in Ukraine on Saturday that was reviewed by the FT.
In defiance of Rubio’s order, USAID in Ukraine temporarily withheld “stop work” orders until it could clarify its partners, according to the email and officials of some of these partner organizations.
The agency also asked staff to evaluate the programs “and find ways for them to more clearly support the Secretary of State’s directive to make the United States safer, stronger, and more prosperous.”
But on Saturday evening in kyiv, some organizations began to receive “stop work” orders.
One such order shared by an organization with the FT ordered the “contractor to immediately stop work under the USAID/Ukraine Contract/Task Order.” The organization had been assigned.
The order said the contractor “is not returning to work. . . Until notification has been received in writing from the Contracting Officer, this downtime workstation has been canceled. »
The State Department, USAID and the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv did not respond to requests for comment.
In an internal cable sent to the State Department and USAID on Friday, obtained by the FT, Rubio advised that all new foreign aid disbursements be suspended. Contracting and grant officers have been directed to “immediately issue stop work orders.” . . Until the Secretary determines, following a review.”
The review, expected to take up to 85 days, leaves the fate of hundreds of U.S. foreign aid contracts — worth more than $70 billion in fiscal year 2022 — in limbo.
Officials and NGO staff in Ukraine, where Russia’s all-out war will enter its fourth year next month, warned that without President Donald Trump’s new secretary of state renouncing programs such as support to schools and hospitals as well as economic and economic and economic and economic Efforts to develop energy infrastructure were in danger.
A program director at an NGO working in kyiv said the funding freeze could be a “catastrophe” for their group and Ukraine.
There are some exceptions to Rubio’s order, including “approved waivers” for military funding for Israel and Egypt, and emergency foreign aid. But the cable does not mention such an exemption for Ukraine, which relies on Washington for military aid to fight Russia.
The State Department and the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv did not respond to requests for clarification of Rubio’s directive regarding new military aid for Ukraine.
However, a Ukrainian government official with knowledge of the matter confirmed to the FT that US military assistance did not fall under the freezing order. “Military aid to Ukraine is intact,” the official said. “At least as of now, and it’s definitely not part of this 90-day freeze.”
The United States has provided $65.9 billion in military aid to Kyiv since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, according to the State Department statistics.
Trump has been skeptical of U.S. military aid to Ukraine and derided President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as “the greatest salesman on earth” for his efforts to obtain billions of dollars’ worth of weapons and munitions.
Trump said this week he wanted to negotiate a “deal” between kyiv and Moscow to end the war. He added that Zelenskyy had “enough” and threatened President Vladimir Putin with more sanctions unless he negotiated a truce.
